After our second day off in New York we assembled outside the Mandarin hotel for a short drive over to Newark, New Jersey. You have to allow up to 2 hours for this journey on a Friday afternoon but today's trip was short and sweet and traffic seemed to be free-flowing. In the cars, we all discussed what we got up to on the evening off and it's safe to say that everyone has enjoyed the stay in New York.



 



I think tonight's show benefited greatly from the day off and relieved after the stresses of the NYC show, the band was very relaxed. In my mind the first half of the set was as good as it's been all tour long, with a stunning Hillfarmer's Blues, a wonderful STP and another delicious Marbletown with John, Glenn and Matt playing some inspired stuff.



The NJPAC is another one of those brilliantly designed and well organized American theatres and the staff are very helpful, so different from the Central Park gig the day before yesterday where the overstaffed backstage security and local crew couldn't have cared less for anything other than their specific singular tasks. As much as I used to agree with the whole 'union' concept, it does seem as if they now exist to make everything as difficult and expensive for the artist as possible. It seems to me to be nothing more than an extremely successful exercise in job creation.
Here's what's left of the 'Welcome to Newark, let's make music' sign I shot in 2005.



The usual after-show runner back to the Mandarin and we decided to have just one drink in the bar before going out in search of more reasonably priced drinks. The bar bill was nothing short of stupidity. Twenty dollars for a Mojito is an absolute joke and it's clear that the folks who drink here don't have to worry about money. We soon moved on to a more appropriate drinking establishment and rounded the evening off with a few slices of Ray's pizza.